South China Morning Post

China approved its new foreign investment law on Friday, as Beijing sends friendly signals to global businesses amid the ongoing US-China trade war.

The final draft of foreign investment law, approved by the rubber-stamp parliamentary body the National People’s Congress, will come into effect on January 1, 2020.

Beijing has rushed to introduce the law in an effort to fend off complaints from the US and Europe about China’s discrimination against foreign businesses.

The new law was first…

As Chinese officials gathered this month in Beijing to pass new laws and review the past year, a pair of American B-52 bombers twice took off from Guam and flew near waters in the South China Sea contested between China and several US allies in the region.

The US operations are a reminder of the strategic rivalry between the world’s two preeminent economic powers, whose competing interests in the region and beyond could escalate into something physical.

In order to challenge the US’ military…

For decades, it was a half-whispered rumor – another puzzle piece in the already considerable urban mythology surrounding Bruce Lee.

This murky tale involved a television show – one that Lee had longed to make but never got the chance to. Instead a studio made a similar sounding series – but with a white actor as the lead.

It would have remained an unsubstantiated footnote in the life of the martial arts master and cultural trailblazer.

But decades after his death in 1973, Lee’s daughter…

Accusations that rich American parents cheated and bribed their children’s way into elite colleges have riled a country that prides itself on being a meritocracy.

But in China, the collective response to the alleged cheating has been one of calm resignation.

“So Americans cheat, too,” said one of the most liked comments responding to the scandal on China’s Twitter-like Weibo.

But it’s not just the allegations of straight-up fraud that have captivated spectators on both sides of the Pacific.

…

The US has refuted Beijing’s defense of its mass internment of Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, a day after the Communist Party said it was running “boarding schools” instead of detention camps.

In its annual human rights report on Wednesday, the State Department condemned China’s systematic internment and possible abuse and torture of Muslim minorities in the western border region.

The report was released on the same day that the US co-hosted an event in Geneva, alongside Canada, Germany, the…

As American and Chinese negotiators search for a deal to end a disruptive US-China trade war, we asked our newsletter subscribers: “What is the one thing about China-US trade that, for the life of you, you just can’t figure out?”

Here are the answers to your questions on everything from the copyright of imaginary technology, to the possible threats posed by the very real rise of China’s global influence.

Subscribe to our newsletter and let us know what else you want to know about.

Q: Did…

Parents in southwestern China were pepper-sprayed by police on Wednesday, after trying to storm the gates of the high school where their students were allegedly served mold-covered meals.

Chengdu police arresting the parents protesting after expired food found in their children’s school canteen. pic.twitter.com/D7XSEsVff1

— William Zheng Wei (@zhengwei75) March 13, 2019

Parents of students at the school had spotted piles of decaying poultry when they stumbled into the kitchen at Development…

When I was in high school in New Zealand, I decided that I wanted to go to university in the United States.

I contacted members of the Ivy League and a few other colleges and asked them to send me their application forms. This was in 1999, when you couldn’t do everything online yet.

Then I signed up to take the SAT and ordered such prep books as I could find on Amazon. My parents had a spare room next to our garage that smelled of exhaust fumes every time they parked.

My high school teachers…

For the Lunar New Year in February, China’s ubiquitous mobile payment service WeChat Pay hired Becky Li to be a “chief experience officer,” showing off how easy it was to pay for things with your phone, even when traveling overseas.

“I thought WeChat would hire a celebrity,” said Li in her office in the heart of Guangzhou.

Li is no pop star or TV personality. But in a way, she’s exactly the kind of celebrity that brands increasingly lust after.

With more than 7.5 million combined followers…

When Feng Jinjin read Joy Chen’s book Do Not Marry Before Age 30 in 2012, she recognized in herself all the mistakes that the author, an American-Chinese life coach, flags in the book.

“I did everything on her do-not-do list. I married when I was 26. I was too young. I lacked self-confidence. I didn’t understand the world or myself,” says Feng, a former internet advertising manager.

In 2016, the then 33-year-old divorced her husband, whom she describes as boring and uncommunicative. She moved…